New user: issue with "avoid"

[glabelle]

I have several ham frequencies programmed. Sometimes interference or just noise causes the scanner to stop on a channel for an extended time. I push "avoid".
The scanner goes on, then stops on the channel again!? I push avoid again, and it is then avoided. Is this normal behavior having to push avoid twice?

 

[jtwalker]

What does the manual say about pushing once vs twice?


hint: once is a temp avoid that lasts until unit is powered down, twice is persistent.

 

[doctordialtone]

I push avoid again, and it is then avoided. Is this normal behavior having to push avoid twice?

Yes.

But it sounds like you have the channel programmed in twice.

Check that.

Which model do you have there?

You can look for an "Easier to Read" manual here

 

[glabelle]

What does the manual say about pushing once vs twice?


hint: once is a temp avoid that lasts until unit is powered down, twice is persistent.

hint for you: It actually says this:
"When the Channel is in the display or in Channel Hold mode: To Temporary Avoid, press AVOID
once. To Permanent Avoid, press twice when the channel is in the display or in Channel Hold mode."

This says to me that you only have to press avoid once while the channel is displayed, not wait for it to come around a second time.
That is what I did.

Also it says: "Temporary Avoids are cleared when you cycle power. You must manually clear permanent avoids."
I had to push it twice, but the channel scanned again after cycling power. I therefore take it that it was temporary.

Oh, to answer another responder (thanks) the channel was not duplicated.

 

[KevinC]

hint for you: It actually says this:
"When the Channel is in the display or in Channel Hold mode: To Temporary Avoid, press AVOID
once. To Permanent Avoid, press twice when the channel is in the display or in Channel Hold mode."

This says to me that you only have to press avoid once while the channel is displayed, not wait for it to come around a second time.
That is what I did.

Also it says: "Temporary Avoids are cleared when you cycle power. You must manually clear permanent avoids."
I had to push it twice, but the channel scanned again after cycling power. I therefore take it that it was temporary.

Oh, to answer another responder (thanks) the channel was not duplicated.

What scanner and how are you "cycling power"?

 

[glabelle]

SDS200. Turn power off. Turn power on, much later.

 

[buddrousa]

A temp lockout 1 push avoid is reset by a power cycle 2 pushes avoid has to be reset by you.

 

[KevinC]

SDS200. Turn power off. Turn power on, much later.

Turn off via the on/off knob or via killing power to the unit? Silly question I know, but it makes a difference.

 

[glabelle]

Via the on off knob.

Let me back up. One push avoid. Exactly what does that do? Does that mean, in Uniden speak, skip this channel - this time? Or does it mean it will skip the channel until power is turned off and back on?

 

[buddrousa]

1 push is avoid until power is cycled

 

[glabelle]

That is what I thought, but not being a died in the wool scanner guy, I wasn't sure.
So that settles it. The documentation is wrong, or there's a bug. I pushed avoid, once. The scan still stopped there. I pushed avoid, once again, and THEN it did not stop on that channel again until I had reset the power - with the knob.

 

[GROL]

I have 6 Uniden scanners. Pressing Lookout or avoid does the same thing on all of them. Single press, avoid or lockout until power is cycled. Double press, permanent avoid. I have never seen a temporary avoid get reversed without a power cycle. This is a very handy feature when searching.

BDC396XT, BCT15X, BCD996P2, BCD325P2, BCD435HP, SDS100 Previous versions I owned did the same.

 

[Ricker1997]

Same frequency on two lists?

 

[doctordialtone]

Same frequency on two lists?

See post #4

 

[GROL]

Same frequency on two lists?

Been there, done that before.

 

[n1chu]

You have that frequency programmed more than once in your scanner. It’s not the frequency you are avoiding but the channel/slot, meaning the place where that frequency is stored in your memory programming. Think of your scanner’s memory as a parking lot. Each space is assigned a unique number, 1, 2, 3, etc. (which you can add an alias to in the form of an alpha tag). You parked the same identical car (alpha tag) in two spots. But the scanner does not forget the number of each spot for indexing reasons… so you’ve alpha tagged two spots the same and therefor need to “Avoid” two parking spots… or locations within your scanners memory.

Hope this analogy helps…

 

[RMason]

As others have described, the most likely cause for the behavior is that the frequency is programmed twice. The fact that the avoid is reset when you cycle power indicates that this is a temporary avoid.

I’d check your programming again. Duplicate frequencies are sometimes not obvious. You may have multiple favorite lists containing the same frequency. Or multiple systems with the same frequency in the same favorite list. Confirm that it is actually the same frequency that the scanner is stopping on. Pay close attention to the display to see if there is a subtle difference.

You can use the Review Avoids feature on the scanner to see what channels have been avoided.
Manage Favorites -> select favorites list -> Review Favorites

If you have Proscan, it has utilities to help identify duplicate frequencies.

 

[Ubbe]

Is this normal behavior having to push avoid twice?

It depends of the receive mode. In this case it seems to not be digital but if it where then it avoids the actual TG displayed and will continue to monitor all other TG's on that frequency.

Now it seems to be analog you are monitoring and if the scanner thinks it sees a CTCSS tone when you push avoid it will only avoid the frequency when it uses that specific CTCSS tone that where stored as avoided. Or the other way around, you avoid a clean carrier but the next time it detected a CTCCS tone from that frequency. Here in Europe we have 50Hz mains and there's a 100Hz tone in the CTCSS table so I often get a detection of 100Hz when I get interferencies with only noise and some buzz in the audio.

/Ubbe

 

[glabelle]

Thanks to all who responded.

I think I figured out what is happening. During initial programming, I couldn't get the "ham" frequencies to scan, until I specified those in the range. While fumbling around, I wrote to the scanner several times.

I did not realize that writing to the canner for than once, appended what was in memory, rather than replacing it. So I cleared the scanner memory, then downloaded my latest favorite list. Now the "avoid" works properly. So it was duplicated, but without me seeing it.

 

[doctordialtone]

So it was duplicated, but without me seeing it.

I thought so.

Glad you got it figured out.